May 18, 1999

Dear Gisela,

thanks so much for your wonderful letter! I hope you did get a chance to check your mailbox while you were in Germany (I suppose you must be back in Canada by now), and enjoyed all the mails Franz sent to you. The two of us have been quite in trouble to manage all the multiple tasks of the day just by ourselves. Luckily, Iris and Stella are back from Germany and will stay here for another year to help us in this our multi-facetical spectre of activities. Anyhow, at least we arrived at what Marx once described as the average way of life in his "Communist Society": "...morgens Fischer (nicht Joschka...), mittags Jäger und abends kritische Kritiker...", in our case with a slight change of chronological order and also a broader variety of professions: In the early morning, we are peasants, with straw hats on our heads and machetes on our belts, taking care of the plants and animals on our farm up in S.O.; at midday, we are computer technicians, fixing the never ending hard- and software problems of Franz’ computer; in the afternoon we are University - teachers and -students at the same time, in the evening, we are critical critics and philosophers, and at weekend nights we are Jäger, hunting down the wild animals that kill our hens and chickens, with Iris’ and Franz’ Calibre-12-Shotguns - get the details from one of my farm reports to Khalid, have you ever read one? -)
On the computer business I urgently suggest that you don’t back off, Gisela, but get one as fast as possible. You've seen the great advantages, not only in terms of direct communication like e-mail and chat, but also concerning all sorts of information from the Internet. A personal computer is also of invaluable help concerning ones own organizing of writing letters, essays, books - whatever, even performing ones’ own desktop publishing and many things more! - Is there any particular reason why you go for the Mackintosh Notebook? Have you informed yourself about the respective advantages / disadvantages? - We totally agree you get your equipment in the United States or Canada, as unfortunately you would have to pay far more in Germany for the same product.

Today, I will comment on your exposition of Peter Sloterdijk’s remarks on Plato in "Philosophie jetzt!" (quite a title...), and in the next mail give you the overview on the sub-topics and their contents of my essay on the philosophical concept of "Raum" (Space). Before I can make a comment on Sloterdijk’s observations concerning Plato’s influence on Western civilization and culture, however, I would like to make a brief review of the core of Plato’s Philosophy, the Ideenschau (Vision of Ideas), so we can establish the connections that are of interest to us, with more ease.

1. Ideenlehre, Ideologie, Ideology:  The Setting

The centre and heart of Plato’s entire philosophy is the "Ideenschau", the Vision of the Ideas. "Vision" in Greek is theoría, and Bloch, in his "Leipziger Vorlesungen"  marvellously explains to us, why there is no "active factor" in the whole of the ancient greek cosmovision and philosophic cognition,  but only a passive "Schau", Vision, theoría. It’s precisely because of the slave-labour basis of ancient Greek society, that philosophers did not physically work, and those who did and literally carried this whole edifice of Greek Philosophy and culture on their shoulders, the slaves, did not figure as human beings in Greek society, but as "speaking tools", as we know. Thus, the Greek "consumer-philosophy" did not know "die Tätigkeit der Erzeugung", production, productive action, but only passives Empfangen, passive Receptiveness, which reflects itself epistemologically as Schau, Vision.
According to our analysis however, this is not the only explanation for this epistemological Greek passiveness. Another reason lies in the basic relation of the "Ideenwelt" (World of the Ideas) towards the "Welt der materiellen Einzeldinge" (World of the material, particular things), which is that of a single postulate or principle towards its Ableitung, derivation, and vice versa, and which reflects a certain stage of the labour process, that is the non-relation society-nature at the stage of the slave-labour mode of production. Plato’s postulate, the ideas, are the Urbilder ("original pictures"), the archetypes, the real thing. Being the ideas themselves "materielle Gestalten" (material figures), they still represent "das Allgemeine der Dinge" (the genus of the things), "die Gattungsbegriffe" (the generic terms), "den Inbegriff der Dinge" (the essence of things), "das wahre Sein" (the true being).
Now, for something to be "das wahre Sein", it surely must not change, must not move, must not be in process. Thus, it must remain, what it is, it must remain identical to and with itself, in other words, it must rest, it must be at rest. Being is Being-at-Rest, (Sein ist Ruhe-Sein) and only as such, as Being-at-Rest, it can be an object of epistemology, of cognition, of identification. We know that for Plato, cognition is re-cognition, remembrance of the implacable world of ideas that the soul has seen before being born in the "second hand world" of cheap imitations. Cognition is re-cognition, and thus the true Being is the recognizable Being-at-Rest of the topos ouranios, of the world of ideas. If the world of ideas changed, it could never be an object of cognition, least re-cognition and reminiscence, because, put in a simplified way, you cannot recognize and remember something that has completely changed ever since you saw it. This is also, why Being-at-Rest, Ruhe, In-Ruhe-Sein, has been linked with the notion of "perfection", which also plays a central role in theology. God never changes. He escapes all the laws of space-time relation, he is beyond limited space and time, eternal, infinite, ever being, etc. thus "perfect".

Well then, we don’t know why and for what "reason", but the ideas have the incredible kindness or necessity or urge or whatever, to "participate themselves" to the material particular things (sich den materiellen Einzeldingen mitzuteilen). The particular things are nothing else but sort of a second or third infusion (Aufguß) of the Original Ceylon Tea, but at least they give us some "idea of a taste" of what the original might be like, they take somehow part in the world of ideas, they are a more or less successful "expression" of the ideas.

2. Der Stoff (Matter)

The "original images", the ideas, express themselves in matter (prägen sich im Stoff aus), objectivate themselves in matter (entäußern, verdoppeln sich im Stoff). Although matter is mé on, non-being (das Nichtseiende), tó kénon, the empty (das Leere), it still serves the ideas for the purpose of being the material substratum for their expression and forms, because in the final analysis, the ideas wouldn’t even be able to express themselves without matter. We could go so far and assume, that matter, if not postulated, must be a product of the realm of ideas, of their expressing themselves, of their objectivating themselves, but surely Plato does not conceive it this way. Although not postulated expressis verbis, matter "is just there", the non-being, derived, of course, from being, as the very term non-being indicates. Matter is that, what moves, what is in motion, what is in process: Das, was wird und nicht ist. Being-in-Motion is not Being- at-Rest. Thus, according to Plato, Being-in-Motion, Matter, is Not-Being (at Rest). Matter, Being-in-Motion, is not identical with itself, thus it is incomplete, half a thing, restless, imperfect. It’s identity is precisely not being identical to itself, being different with itself, and thus not being an object of cognition.

3. Graduation of Being

Before we can explain, on what condition the world of the material particular things still can be an object of cognition within Plato’s Philosophy, we have to take a look at Plato’s graduation of Being (Seinsabstufung), according to which "Being" (the world-at-rest of the ideas) equals "value" and "truth", and "Non-Being" (the moving matter) equals "non-value", falseness. We saw above, that the ideas express themselves in matter, we can say, they somehow "mix" with matter. Now, the more "Being" (rest) is contained in the mixture idea/matter, the more true, the more real it is. The lesser "Being" it contains, the lesser real and true it is. In other words, the respective degree of reality of the material particular things depends on of "how much" matter and "how much" idea they're composed of. The nearer something comes to its genus, the more "abstract" something is, or the more something approaches the "original idea", the more real it is, the more true it is. This also determines the degree of recognizability of the world of the particular material things: Matter is only insofar an object of recognition, as the moving material world contains elements of the perfect world-at-rest of the ideas, which can be re-cognized, re-membered.

4. Graduation of Human Being (Mensch-Seinsabstufung)

We find this very same "graduation of being" (Seinsabstufung) within the realm of human being, as exposed by Plato in his "Politeia".
Individually spoken: The more a human being approaches the "idea" of the genus human being, the more real and true it is. The more a human being approaches the world-at-rest of the topos ouranios, of the world of the ideas, by cognition and recognition, the more real and true it is. The more however a human being is immersed in the moving material world, the more false and unreal, the less true and real it is. Remember the graduation of the human body: The head, as the "upper being", most closely to the topos ouranios, represents logos, reason, cognition; the breast, as the "middle being", represents courage; and the lower body, as the "lower being", represents material vanity, greed and instincts. Society is accordingly graduated as follows: The philosophers are the real human beings, as they philosophize, cognize and recognize; the military correspond to the "middle being" and the producers correspond to the least real beings, as they deal with the dirt of the material world, with manual production. The slaves do not even figure in this graduation of human being, they fall completely outside the human range.

Now, Gisela, you wrote:
"I do not agree with anything Plato says, of course. But maybe it was a good thing, at his time, and maybe we would be better off if his ethical ideas were still followed by the ruling class, who knows? ... It would have to apply to everybody, of course: women, slaves, and younger ones. ..."

Plato’s ethical ideas in fact were and are still being followed by the ruling classes, just the way he exposed them. They were never meant to apply to women, slaves, younger ones, the working masses, the underdogs, blacks, communists, arabs, terrorists etc. His ethical ideas were exactly meant to apply to the respective ruling class, and nobody else. (South Africa in times of Apartheid shows Plato’s Politeia at its best!) Wanting to apply his ethical ideas "to everybody" is not understanding Plato’s and the ruling classes’ historical task. And one of the main historical tasks, or "Gesellschaftsauftrag", to use a term of Bloch, of the ruling classes as formulated by Plato, has been carried out to perfection: Tell the "everybodies" (women, slaves, underdogs etc.) a fairy tale, a lie, and make them believe they're all human beings to hinder them from seeing that they, de facto, are not. "Educate" the "everybodies" within the system according to its respective needs and to preserve it’s eternal stability. Make them identify themselves from the very beginning with their role in society and guarantee therewith, that they never take notice they're part of a game they don’t even play. Make them believe they have their lives in their own hands, when in reality they are like the "peasants" on the chess board, being moved from above according to the needs of the system. Make the "everybodies" believe (not think) the current system is the best of all possibly thinkable systems, and make them defend it by diverting their hidden and open frustrations to everything but the system itself; make them believe in a common enemy to guarantee inner stability.
In other words, the ruling classes rule by means of Ideology, by controlling "everybodies" minds. (Ideologie - wörtliche Übersetzung: Ideenlehre!) And Plato, in his Politeia, has perfectly explained how it works. This is, what we recognize, "with and despite Plato".

5. Plato’s Method: Eros as personification of "Dialectics", of the relation Idea-Matter.

The method in Plato’s Ideology, that determines the relation of the world of the ideas towards the material world of particular things, is personified in Eros, understood in the sense of longing (Sehnsucht). In Plato’s version, Eros is the son of father poros (richness) and mother penia (penury), the son of "father having" and "mother lack". (I can’t help from smiling here, because I see you steaming with anger whilst reading these lines: Yes, logically, patristically, "abundance" is the father and "shortage" the mother - how could it be different?! Wie schlecht!, as Stella likes to state.)
Now, as Bloch explains, the relation of "not-having", of lack or want towards "having", towards abundance, is precisely longing, Sehnsucht, Eros. Eros not only personifies the motion from imperfection towards perfection, but also explains the why of motion: Being both, having and lacking, Eros is searching. He has, and he lacks; if he was only lacking, he would not have a basis on which to search, he would not even know he was lacking in first place. That, what is lacking, is present as having and as not-having. - Having, of course, refers to the topos ouraneos -at-rest, which the soul has seen before being born, and lacking refers to the imperfection of the material world-in-motion, that has to be transcended by re-cognition, remembering the world of ideas once seen. This is precisely, where re-remembrance, reminiscence, anamnesis, enters the stage.

Anamnesis

What is anamnesis? - The soul has been a companion of the gods before being born in the body-cage of the human being. Soma sema, says Plato, the body is the grave of the soul. Being born, the soul "falls" and forgets everything seen before in the topos ouraneos, in the world-at-rest of the ideas. This "something" known before and then forgotten, is being stimulated through the physical appearance, through sensorial perception, through the Sinnenwelt, and the human soul re-remembers the ideas seen before its birth-fall. The world of sensorial perception however is nothing else but a "schlechte Eselsbrücke", sort of a vague memo-stickpad for the soul (logos), sort of a "Spickzettel" (crib note) to remember the absolute truths seen in the topos ouraneos.

And here we have the direct reference to Sloterdijk, when he writes about the influence of Plato on the European school-model, which persisted a thousand years and longer: The absolute truths of the state, in order to preserve society as it is and according to the role of the future citizens in society, have to be learnt by heart, by memory, by these future citizens within the educational system. Thus, the pupils in school, these poor souls, have to make their utmost effort to learn and remember the absolute truths which they have to write down with point and comma in the exams, and if their memory fails, they get the non-value: false! The guardians of the topos ouraneos of the absolute truths, the teachers and professors, watch carefully over this Pavlov-memory-training, and see to it, that there is no thinking whatsoever. Remembering the absolute truths equals the value "true", and anything else, including thinking, equals the non-value "false". In other words: Plato’s anamnesis is the universal method of studying and learning, up to today.
The truth according to Plato and the "European school model" is absolute, it stands still, it never changes, it is always one and the same, otherwise it wouldn’t be recognizable, rememberable. There is no cognition possible in relation towards movement, because movement, motion, makes anamnesis impossible. This is why the science of history, for example, has long been considered as the most "objective" of all sciences, because historic cognition refers to the past, thus to the absolute inalterable truth, which cannot change a posteriori, and thus "objectivity" (read: anamnesis) is guaranteed. The bottom line: "learning" and "studying" is nothing else but "Wiedererinnerungs-Hilfe", (memory-aid), Auswendig-Lernen der absoluten Wahrheiten (learning by rote of the absolute truths) in order to guarantee the eternal self-preservation of the system.

By the way, Bloch is all fascinated by this Eros-motor and -motive in Plato’s philosophy, making it part and parcel of his own Philosophy and Principle of Hope. Just like Eros in Plato’s philosophy, it is Scientific Hope in Bloch’s "Open System", which "personifies" the dialectical method. Dialectics, in both philosophies, stands for the explanation of motion; it is the incarnation of imperfection, as something in motion is not (Plato), is not yet (Bloch), is not real (Plato), is not yet real (Bloch), is not perfect (Plato), is not yet perfect (Bloch). Dialectics, in both philosophies, is employed to bring out perfection, to come to rest, to come to a Happy End, to remember Plato’s topos ouraneos and to come to Bloch’s future "Heimat" (home).
Thus, Dialectics is nothing else but internal, intensive motion in the service of rest, not only in Plato and Bloch, but also and explicitly in Hegel’s Philosophy! It is not the case, what has often been claimed by Marxists, for example, that dialectics have not been correctly applied. Plato, Bloch, Hegel and even Marx formulated exactly, what Dialectics really is: Motion in the service of Rest, Motion of the Identity, the internal Auto-Motion of Rest. (- Why is this so? - Because each and everyone of them only postulates one main principle, spirit or matter, from which the other one is derived!) Interestingly, Zenon of Elea has hit this dialectical nail exactly onto its head, in his "Beweise gegen die Bewegung" (Proofs against Motion). Zenon did not "mis-apply" dialectics against dialectics, dialectics against motion, but exactly formulated rest in its core, the essence of rest: the motion of rest.

7. Summary

We have seen the relation of Plato’s main postulate (world of ideas) towards its derivation (material world of the particular things). Of course this epistemological relation basically has not changed throughout the main philosophical systems of the history of philosophy up to today, no matter what kind of philosophical system we are dealing with, and no matter either, whether we are dealing with idealism or materialism, finding the nicest absurdities in idealism however. Look at Hegel’s Philosophy, for instance, where Hegel himself is nothing else but the "Sekretär des Weltgeistes", a derivation, manifestation and instrument of the World Spirit on the way to Absolute Knowledge, to the Selbsterkenntnis des Geistes (self-recognition of the Spirit itself). So, the big Hegelian Parole (maxime) "Erkenne Dich selbst" (recognize yourself) refers to the same Weltgeist (world spirit), and if we should commit the mistake to make this our individual Leitmotiv (leading motive), we would be ending up like Hegel, recognizing ourselves as somebody elses’ Griffel or Schreibfeder (pen or feather), which is, what the Sekretär is reduced to in the final analysis. All these seemingly artificial and even absurd philosophical constructions are nothing but an expression of the progressive, absurd non-relation: society-nature, an expression of "wie herrlich weit wir es gebracht haben", an expression of continuous destruction, of the labour process itself.

My dearest Gisela, I will have to stop my reflections for today. I still want to forward you the sketch of my essay on Space, which I will do in my next mail.
Do take care and hopefully until soon,
                                                                                  warm greetings from
Jutta.
(continued)